Frequently asked questions

BreatheSimple is a smartphone app that screens and trains your breathing. It uses your phone’s microphone to measure how well your body controls your breathing, gives you a Breathing Control Index (BCI), and offers personalized guided breathing programs. The screening is free.

During a short guided test, your phone’s microphone records the sound of your breathing through three phases — relaxed breathing, a breath hold, and recovery. BreatheSimple analyses the moment-to-moment microstructure of that signal to estimate the stability of your breathing control and produce your Breathing Control Index.

Loop gain describes how strongly your body’s breathing control system reacts to small changes in oxygen and carbon dioxide. When loop gain is high, the system over-corrects and breathing can become unstable — speeding up and slowing down in cycles. Measuring and training this responsiveness is central to what BreatheSimple does.

The Breathing Control Index is BreatheSimple’s summary score of how stable your breathing control is, based on your guided screening test. A more stable result suggests steadier control; a less stable result may indicate you could benefit from guided breathing training.

No. BreatheSimple is a wellness and screening tool, not a medical device. It does not diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. If you have concerns about your sleep, breathing, or health, please consult a qualified clinician.

No. The screening runs entirely on your smartphone using its built-in microphone. While the data sits in the lineage of advanced wearable signals, BreatheSimple needs no extra device to get started.

Screening and your Breathing Control Index are free. Personalized guided breathing programs are offered through a paid subscription, so you only pay if your results suggest training would help.

Your privacy comes first. The audio from your breathing test is used to calculate your Breathing Control Index and personalize your training, and it is treated as confidential, health-related information. BreatheSimple is built to keep your data secure, we do not sell your personal information, and you stay in control — you can request that your data be deleted at any time.